Transition
by sslalax
Summary: As Stefan and Elena part ways, how will Elena overcome the guilt of hurting everyone around her and her overwhelming feelings for Damon? Ice cream and chick flicks can't make her feel better any more, not now she has a taste for something else entirely... (follows on straight from the last episode)
1. Transition

**(Just couldn't resist writing a Delena fic after the last episode, continues straight from the break-up scene and will show a more fun and care-free Elena as she tries to deal with her problems as a vampire, your reviews are much appreciated! Enjoy :))**

"I can't do this any more, Elena," Stefan admitted, with pain and reluctance in his low voice. Elena turned, shocked, as for a split second she recalled the first time she ever kissed Stefan, she opened her life up to him, told him she was scared. Stefan said that he met a girl, they talked, and it was epic. That is what they had, an epic love. But not any more, Elena confessed to herself as she locked eyes with Stefan and accepted defeat. "I know," she eventually replied, as a sharp pain struck her right in her chest at the sheer thought that she might have an epic love again, with someone who isn't Stefan. Her first love. How could something that once felt so right, so inevitable, now feel so confused and lonely? Part of Elena blamed her transition, her new being, nothing good can come from being a monster.

Stefan lowered his head and stared at the ground. He hated that he had to do it, he hated that he had to accept that Elena might love his brother too, how did this happen? He asked himself, as he sat in loaded silence reliving his last truly happy memory with Elena, just after her transition in the woods, teaching her how to hunt. In that moment, he truly thought things would be okay. He believed that is how things would be, Stefan and Elena, they would live forever in pure bliss, never having to leave one another's side. Of course, that was too simple a solution for a Salvatore. There would always be Damon, wherever he went, he couldn't change his brother.

As if Elena could hear his thoughts she broke the silence quietly, "I'm sorry it turned out this way," she swallowed, tears filling her eyes as guilt and hurt spread through her body. She never meant to hurt Stefan, she didn't want to feel the things that she did for Damon, but she knew there was no going back now and she couldn't pretend any more, not now she was a vampire and everything was different, everything smelled fresher, seemed clearer and more defined, anything she felt about Damon had been magnified a thousand times, and it wasn't fair on Stefan this way. "I'm sorry too," he turned to her once more, and forced a half-hearted smile before he dragged himself up and slowly walked away. Elena stared in despair while he walked away from her, like the past 4 years never happened. Elena hadn't felt this alone in a long time, she was consumed by guilt and sadness, the pain she had caused Stefan for her own selfish emotions were too much to deal with.

Elena wiped her eyes, careful not to ruin her jacket and shook her head. She had to get out away from this house, away from herself. Now, if she were a human, the next place she would go would be to Bonnie, her best friend who she had caused so much pain in the past, just like she had everyone else and yet they all stayed. She thought of Jeremy, her baby brother who had some how gotten tangled up in all this mess, he didn't deserve this, her job was to protect him, love him, be his big sister. But she seemed to attract trouble to everyone she cared about. Her mind drifted to Caroline, Tyler, her once very normal friends who were now _supernatural _beings, what on earth happened to her life? Bonnie couldn't fix the guilt she was feeling any more. She was a vampire, and ice cream and chick flicks wouldn't solve her problems. She had to turn it off.


	2. Three Glasses of Scotch

"Another, please," Elena mumbled to the bartender, this was her third round of scotch, a drink she had never drank in her life but she figured depressed, lonely business men must drink it for a reason. The room has started to blur and voices had become muffled, just as she'd hoped.

"Are you sure? You don't look like a scotch kind of girl," the concerned bartender replied, raising an eyebrow at the petite brown haired girl slumped over the bar. Elena looked up and smiled sarcastically, "I bet I don't look like the kind of girl to have feelings for her boyfriends brother either, sorry, ex-boyfriend, and lets not even bring up the death toll hanging over my head," she snapped back and snatched the next glass of scotch from his hand. The bartender held his hands up and moved on to another customer in an effort not to agitate Elena more.

Elena stayed like this for a while, replaying her entire life over and over in her mind, picking out where exactly it went wrong. Sometimes she'd wish she never met Stefan that day, and that she was still with Matt, a human, going to high school everyday like a normal person would. Coming home to Jeremy and Jenna, having dinner with her family. All of the little things she missed out on now she was a vampire, and most of the people she cared about were dead. Elena considered flicking the humanity switch several times during this self-pity parade, she couldn't decide whether it would make her feel better or feel worse. The freedom of having no feelings, no emotions, not a care in the world, but it would be a world without love and passion, something she had never gone without before.

The later it got, the more the bar began to fill with people like herself, drowning their sorrows in countless glasses of alcoholic beverage, drinking away their sadness. Elena looked around, looked on as people enjoyed long, pointless and yet thoroughly entertaining conversations with their friends and family, laughing, smiling. She found it extraordinary that none of them knew of the creatures living beside them, that none of them had any idea the amount of horror and violence they had been surrounded with. Elena searched the room for someone she knew, someone to distract her from her own torturous mind until a familiar handsome figure strolled through the doorway. Elena groaned and turned back to her drink.

"Elena," Klaus smirked, "what a pleasant surprise," he lifted her glass and sniffed around the rim, "you never struck me as the type of girl who drinks scotch..."

"Well now you all know," she sighed, "what do you want Klaus?" she asked with a frown on her face, snatching the glass back from his hands and downing the last mouthful. She had to squint her eyes to be able to focus on Klaus' sculpted face, and kept her hands firmly on the bar in an attempt to avoid toppling right off of her stool. Klaus stared at her for a moment, his head cocked to one side as he observed this foreign sight, a very drunk Elena.

"I was looking for Damon and planning on drinking away my anger, but I think you will make do," he smiled mischeviously and dragged Elena over to the dancefloor in a flash, just as Moves Like Jagger began playing through the speakers. "You need to stop being so pathetic Elena, you remind me of my sister. Do you realise that you are a vampire and you are sitting in a bar feeling sorry for yourself?" Klaus gripped Elena's waist to support her legs, but she fought back with her hands pushing him away, scrunching her eyes.

"I don't want to dance Klaus!" she snapped. Klaus locked his arm around her, not allowing her to move an inch.

"Just dance," he began to move to the beat of the song, and Elena groaned in defeat, moving with him. More people had began to join them and spin around them, Elena watched their faces light up with happiness as they danced with their friends, and allowed the alcohol in her veins take her to a happy place and suddenly she lifted her arms up and joined in too. Klaus grinned and danced with her as she lost herself in the music and people around her, she smiled wide and her arms closed around Klaus' neck as he pulled her closer to him. She could barely recognise him, or anyone in fact she had drank so much. She had no control over what she was doing, and Klaus was staring intently at her lips as they moved. "Haven't you heard I'm the biggest slut in town?" Elena exclaimed as she laughed, "I don't care anymore!" Klaus' smooth, icy lips closed over the crook in Elena's neck, and the switch was about to flick, before Klaus was forcefully thrown through the doors of Mystic Grill. Before Elena could fall due to her inability to stand, she was carried at vampire speed outside to join him.

Elena was sat on the cold hard floor, resting against the rough bricks of the Grill, and all she could see was a blurred picture of two beautiful men wrestling before her. Damon's hands locked around Klaus' neck, "give me one good reason why I shouldn't snap your neck right now," he hissed through gritted teeth.

"Well, one, I can't die so that would be useless, and two, your girl over their is blind drunk and came on to me first," Klaus replied confidently, rage in his eyes and a tension in his voice.

"She is all head over heels lovey dovey kiss kiss with my brother, you really think I believe that crap?" Damon spat back. Klaus gripped Damon's shoulders and threw him off of him.

"Are you sure about that?" Klaus brushed off his jacket, but before Damon could respond he was already gone. Damon looked around in confusion, frowning intensely, until his attention turned to Elena. He rushed to her side as he noticed she was barely conscious, his mind racing at the thought of what Klaus had done to her.

"Elena?" He asked worriedly, until he caught the smell of his favourite drink on her breath. He laughed to himself, restaining every urge in his body not to kiss her and take her pain away for a few minutes. He picked her up once more. Before she could even acknowledge what was happening, she was already in her bed with Damon looking over her. Her eyes involuntary squinted to focus on his glorious face, while she tried to process what had happened over the last hour.

"Damon?" suddenly, her stomach filled with drunk anger and rage, "I don't want you here Damon! You think you can just come and rescue me after your brother has dumped me so you can jump in and be my shoulder to cry on? You aren't fooling anyone!" she began to cry, Damon stood at the foot of her bed, staring in confusion.

"You and Stefan broke up?" he asked, shocked.

"Don't play stupid Damon!" she snapped back, anger taking over her body, knots twisting in her stomach before she realised the real reason for her rage. "I'm done caring, I'm not being responsible for anyone's pain any more." She groaned as her eyes darkened and her fangs took over her mouth. Damon realised what she needed, but before he could help her she had already charged out of her room and back in to the temptation of the outside.

Elena ran, she ran as fast as her vampire ability would let her, to where she knew she could satisfy her rage. All of her cares had vanished, her mind was consumed with the thought of warm, running, pulsating blood passing between her starving lips. The last time she fed on a human, and the only time, she was haunted and tormented by the guilt, what would become of her now? Maybe Katherine was right, maybe she was like her, maybe even worse.

It was cold and quiet, the air tense and eerie while Elena knelt beside a small building in an alleyway as she waited for a human to fall in to her trap. Seconds felt like minutes, but sure enough Elena's nose caught the scent of a young male, around Jeremy's age, walking out of the building laughing whilst struggling to put a pair of wooly gloves on. Her mouth began to salivate, her eyes locked on to the veins in his neck, pumping hot and alive blood around his body. She waited until he turned to walk cluelessly past the entrance to the alleyway, and struck him from behind, latching on to his neck in a nanosecond, sucking the life out of him. Not a single worry crossed her mind in those blissful seconds, and she fully intended to continue until every last drop was gone. She moaned in to his neck, his body going limp.

She could hear his heart beginning to slow, and her humanity prayed for her to find the strength to stop. To let him live, to hold on to what she had left.

Time began to slow down, when a swift arm dragged the unconscious body away from Elena's grasp. At first, Elena's reaction was to fight, she stood suddenly and looked around, ready to fight for what was hers, blood dripping down her face. Her eyes met with Damon's and his faced was filled with sorrow. He blamed himself for what Elena had become, if only he hadn't interfered, maybe none of this would have happened. But he loved her, he loved her.

Elena collapsed to the ground, snapping back to reality. She wiped the blood away from her face and buried herself in her hands, giving in to the underlying tears that had plagued her all day. Damon forced his bloodied wrist to the human's mouth until he was brought back to consciousness and compelled him to forget. The human strolled away, oblivious to the monster that had just attacked him.

Damon sat by Elena's side for a few minutes, making sure not to touch her. Her sobs broke the long silence, after she replayed her violent attack over again in her mind, realising what she had become. "I'm so sorry," Elena manages between sobs, leaning her head down against Damon's shoulder, giving in to her emotions and allowing her to feel what he feels for her constantly. Love and gratitude.

He wrapped his strong arm around her, and held her together while she cried. His mind drifted to his brother, his brother he would sacrifice everything for, his brother he has always been in the shadow of. When would Damon find his happiness? Elena made him lighter, she made him feel good, like he could do good. As far as he was concerned, his happiness was crying in to his chest right in this moment.

"I make that the 487th time I've saved you," he sighed, smiling before lightly kissing the top of her head.


	3. Confessions

Damon sat by the window in Elena's silent bedroom, staring out into the fog blankly. He and Elena had sat in the alleyway for well over an hour, staying quiet and still while she cried and they hadn't said a word to each other all night, not even on the long walk home.

Damon's mind drifted back to when Stefan was gone with Klaus, as much as he wanted his brother back and safe, he couldn't help but have hope for him and Elena. How many times had he replayed their kiss in his head, and each time it brought a smile upon his mouth. This was his proof that she cared about him, that she felt something. He still found it odd how Elena was identical to Katherine, but they had completely opposite personalities. His love for Katherine shared no comparison to his love for Elena, his love for Elena was selfless, consuming,while Katherine brought him nothing but pain, anger and jealousy. She had tortured his heart for as long as he could remember.

"We broke up because of you, Damon," Elena told him quietly, she hadn't rested at all since Damon brought her home. Her mind was racing with the events of the day and she couldn't lie in this still room with him and not tell him how she felt. It was killing her, the elephant in the room. Damon's head instinctively turned to her as soon as he heard her voice and stared for a second at her exhausted face. She had such beautiful brown doe eyes, even in the darkness. Damon's unliving heart felt like it skipped a beat as he reacted to her sudden words.

"I'm flattered," he smirked, smouldering his gleaming blue eyes back at her, "but I don't recall doing anything wrong."

"We broke up because of my feelings for you," Elena made no eye contact, keeping her head firmly on the pillow, staring at the crisp white sheets. Damon never thought he would hear Elena speak those four last words in his lifetime.

"Oh," was all he could manage to the first time in his life, he was left speechless. He sat up slowly and strolled over to Elena's side, sitting by her on the bed, a place he had been many times before, but never with this kind of welcoming.

"I love him, Damon. I'll probably always feel love for Stefan, but then there's you. You came along, and you brought so much danger with you. I hated you, but something changed. You changed. I know you can be good Damon, I've seen it with my own eyes, I've _felt _it," Elena pushed herself up, so she was eye level with him and continued while Damon sat in complete silence. "When I'm with you, you consume me, and I can't shake you Damon, I've tried and I've tried for Stefan's sake, but I can't any more," Elena finally lifted her face, and looked him right in the eyes, they sat like this for a few seconds before Elena carefully reached for Damon's hand and held it in hers. "But, I can't do this right now. My mind is drowning in guilt, I feel terrible for the pain I have put everyone I care about through, you, Stefan, Jeremy. I just can't do this right now. I don't want to feel any more, Damon." Her eyes drifted to his lips and watched them for a moment, and for the first time she knew she had every right to press hers against them and give in to her heart, but deep down she knew it would be wrong. She knew how much hurt Damon had suffered, how painful it must have been to watch her with Stefan, to watch Katherine with Stefan. Everyone he loved rejected him and she just wanted to make him feel loved, just this once.

Damon had nothing to say. This moment had never even crossed his mind, he had waited for this for so long, he never thought it would become reality. He waited for Katherine, and her words never came. He expected the same to happen this time, because it was always going to be Stefan, they had made that crystal clear. He looked down at their entwined hands and squeezed hers tight, before he carefully lifted it to his lips and kissed lightly.

"I should go," he let go of her delicate hand and stood to his feet. Brushing his hair away from his face tensely, he strolled over to Elena's bedroom door before turning back to face her. She was frowning, watching him in confusion and longing, longing for him to stay, being alone with her thoughts was the last thing she wanted right now. She needed a distraction. "Don't turn it off, Elena," he told her imperatively, he knew if she gave up on her humanity now, he may never get her back.

Elena was alone. Her mind cleared ever so slightly now she had confessed her feelings to Damon, but the guilt that riddled her still remained. Turn it off. Turn it off. You don't have to feel like this, the Katherine on her shoulder kept telling her. She wanted more, more blood, less feelings. She knew giving up was the weaker option, but she didn't know how strong she could be after everything she had done, everything she'd been through.

Damon sat in his usual spot, bottle of whiskey in one hand, his head in the other. He didn't know where else to go, he had to tell someone about what had just happened and no one else would understand. Except Alaric.

"She told me I consume her. Can you believe that?" Damon laughed to himself, before taking another drink from his bottle. "Elena Gilbert, my brother's girlfriend, the woman I love, said I _consume _her," he laughed again, but expression abruptly became serious as he frowned. "I'm not this person Alaric, the person she wants me to be. I'm not the vampire who is loved, I kill people! I snapped her brother's neck! Stefan is good at this, not me!" he threw the glass bottle aggressively at the nearest tree, making a sharp crash as it shattered into thousands of pieces.

"She's going to turn it off and I don't know how to _help_ her!" Damon exclaimed furiously, slamming his fist into the ground. "If you wouldn't mind not being dead for a few minutes that would be _great," _he spoke to Alaric's head stone sarcastically, whilst a small part of his mind had hope that something would happen eventually. There was never a dull moment in Mystic Falls.


	4. Gone and Forgotten

Damon sat with Alaric all night, sitting by his head stone in the crisp winter air, taking in everything Elena had said to him. Trying to believe the words she was saying was proving a difficult task, especially after spending more than a hundred years being a cold hearted monster, a product of the woman who didn't love him too.

The sun had began to rise as Damon wandered the lonely early morning streets of Mystic Falls, heading back to his home to confront his most probably heartbroken and bitter baby brother. He hoped Stefan would know he never intended this to happen, Damon concretely thought Elena would choose Stefan, always. He recalled his first few months in Mystic Falls and the first time he ever met Elena, he was instantly drawn to her. Not just because of Katherine, but because she had an aura of innocence about her, a good, a purity inside her that made her different. He had made so many mistakes and done so many things to hurt her, she never deserved any of it.

Damon strolled through the front doors of the Salvatore household, expecting to find his brother feeling sorry for himself in a similar way to Elena, a fine bottle of scotch. What he found when he entered was entirely the opposite, Stefan appeared restless and unsettled as he dashed around the living room of his and his brother's home. Damon stood in the doorway, a confused frown occupied his face, before Stefan turned to notice him.

"Going somewhere, brother?" Damon asked sarcastically, leaning against the door frame. "Elena told me what happened..." He dropped his head, his tone lowering.

"Don't act like this isn't the best day of your life, Damon," Stefan hissed at him, shoving his diary in a small bag that appeared to be packed ready to leave. Damon's expression turned sour at his brother's bitter reaction.

"It sounds a lot like you're blaming me for your little spat with Elena," Damon replied, trying to be calm for his brother's sake.

"You let her feed from you Damon! You kiss her, you save her, you carry her, you hold her, you got under her skin. How am I supposed to compete with that?" Stefan retorted.

"You _left _her, she was broken and I was the only one who stuck around to fix her, and even after that, she chose you," Damon told him the truth as he stormed over to him, it seemed everything Damon did for Elena wasn't enough, until now.

"Well it doesn't matter now," Stefan ignored his close presence, picking up his bag and making his way to the door. "We had an agreement that whoever she chose, the other would leave, so I'll be out of the state within an hour."

"_Going_? Going where exactly? You don't seriously believe Elena will keep this up? You've left her once before, hell she doesn't even know you're going anywhere and I've already found her drunk in a bar staddling Klaus and sucking the life out of an innocent human, what do you think she's going to do when I tell her you've gone, _again_?" Damon told him through gritted teeth. "She's been talking about turning it off, Stefan."

A tense silence lingered in the room, before Stefan shook his head and continued, "she won't. She loves you Damon, you'll keep her safe," Stefan sighed, defeated.

"She loves _you_! That won't just go away, Stefan!" Damon threw his hands in the air with anger and confusion.

"Goodbye Damon," Stefan picked up his backs and walked out of the door, disregarding everything Damon had told him.

"Yeah thats right, you run away and leave me with your mess, as always, have fun baby brother! You'll be back," Damon shouted after him, hoping he would return and realise his mistake. Damon groaned, paced over to the drinks cabinet and poured himself a glass of scotch. Now he had to tell Elena.

Elena had the stereo on full blast, booming throughout the entire Gilbert house. Jeremy had been gone a few days, giving her space, taking care of Bonnie. She'd never felt more alone, like everyone was against her. No one had been the same since she became a vampire, all she felt was reject, even from Stefan. He hated what she'd become, just like everyone else.

She danced around room to room, not acknowleding the outside world or anything but her emotions. Emotions that overwhelmed and trapped her in this lifeless body. Being a vampire wasn't all it cracked up to be. Today was the Mystic Falls Dance, and as much as she would rather drive a stake through her own heart than go to an elegant dance with people she loved, she knew she had to go. For herself, she had to move on. Or give up, and that couldn't be an option.

"Elena?" she heard a muffled exclamation from downstairs. She prayed it wouldn't be Bonnie or Caroline, Elena knew exactly what they would say about her break up with Stefan, and she didn't want to hear it.

Damon appeared in Elena's bedroom, his face stricken with bad news. Great, she thought. Elena returned to reality, and glumly strolled to the stereo to turn it off. "Don't tell me. Jeremy's dead. Caroline? Bonnie? Jenna? Oh wait," she said sarcastically followed by a short sigh as she collapsed on to the end of her bed. Damon sat above her, looking down at her flawless features.

"Stefan's gone, Elena," Damon confessed sorrowfully. Panic and gloom flooded Elena's expression as she quickly sat up to face him.

"What? Gone where?" She frowned.

"I tried to make him stay, but my brother is almost as stubborn as I am apparently," Damon raised his eyebrows, placing his hand on Elena's knee for comfort.

"What did he say? This is because of me isn't it, he can't even stand to be around me," Elena's eyes began to fill with tears for the thousandth time. "How could he leave me again, Damon?" she looked up at Damon in pain and despair, searching for an answer.

"I don't know," Damon honestly replied, squeezing her knee gently.

They sat in silence for a moment while Elena gathered her thoughts. She never thought Stefan would leave her again, not even if they ever broke up. There was a lot of things she didn't know about him, she figured.

At first, Damon's news was like drinking a glass of vervain, but then she thought. She couldn't spend the rest of her life, the rest of eternity being filled with sorrow over the people who hurt her. She knew she had to surround herself with happiness, if she had any chance of surviving as a vampire, a sane one.

Elena took a deep breath and lifted her chin, a small smile gracing her face so she was looking directly at Damon. His eyes were filled with sadness and guilt, she knew he was feeling all of the same pain she was, it was his brother after all.

"Well, we can't stay here and mope around all day," Elena stood to her feet. "Are you going to the dance?" She asked him seriously, she intended to go alone and find someone to dance with while she was there, perhaps Matt, but deep down she hoped Damon would come.

Damon was taken back by her sudden positivity, as he lifted himself to his feet too, he couldnt help but smile. "Well, it would be rude not grace the kind people of Mystic Falls with my presence," he smirked, looking down at her.

Elena forced a smile, trying to block all of the negative thoughts from her clustered mind. "I guess I'll see you there."

"I guess you will," Damon brushed passed her on his way to her bedroom door. "Goodbye Elena."


	5. Iris

Elena allowed herself 30 minutes to be upset about Stefan. Once Damon had left, she needed 30 minutes to compose herself, to accept the fact that Stefan had left her for the second time, without even so much as a goodbye. She leaned forward against the kitchen counter of her empty house, which was once filled with so much love and happiness. All she could do was move on with her life. If this is what Stefan wanted, Elena knew she didn't have the strength to change his mind.

Three, two, one. Thirty minutes were up, Elena took a deep breath before making her way back up to her bedroom, only to discover someone had beat her to it.

A floor length, crimson red one shoulder gown was flawlessly laid across Elena's bed, with a small note resting by the strap. Elena frowned and stared for a moment, before she stepped towards the dress, picking up the piece of card that smelled strangely familiar. She delicately unfolded the card and read out loud to herself, "_I know how much you like the colour red ;)" _All Elena could do was roll her eyes and smile at Damon's inappropriate vampire joke, but that was just the way he was and Elena wouldn't have it any other way.

Damon stood in the elegant hallway, dressed in a crisp black tuxedo and bow tie, his long black hair slicked back neatly to show off his glistening blue eyes and impeccable jaw. He sipped his tall glass of sparkling champagne slowly, as he waited for her to show and stayed on the watch for anything ready to spoil his night.

"Damon," a cheery voice called from behind him. He turned to find Caroline, looking stunning in a long violet halterneck gown, he knew if Caroline was here, Klaus would be close by.

"Caroline," he replied with a smile, tilting his glass towards her. "Where's your date?" he emphasised the last word and looked around behind her.

Caroline huffed, "he isn't my date. All part of a hybrid exchange, and I have no idea where he is, nor do I care, where's _yours?" _She looked him up and down, and smirked.

He bit his lip and squinted his eyes, "I prefer my own company," he smirked back and watched as Caroline raised her eyebrows.

"Are Stefan and Elena coming?" She wondered, having not heard from them for nearly 2 days.

Damon briefly looked to the floor, "your guess is as good as mine." He watched as Caroline's eyes moved from his face to behind him and turned to follow her gaze. The first thing he noticed was the vibrant splash of crimson in the middle of the hallway, before his eyes moved slowly upwards, until they reached a mane of long, waved brown hair, clipped majestically to one side around her dainty, searching doe eyes. Elena looked around until she finally caught Damon's magnetic stare.

Damon's unliving breath caught in his chest as they gazed at each other for a moment, like they had many times before, but each time had the same earth shattering effect on them both.

"Wow, she looks..." Caroline's said, exasperated.

"Breath-taking." Damon muttered to himself, forgetting that Caroline had super sonic vampire hearing.

Caroline grinned behind his back and he still hadn't moved an inch. "I guess I'll go and find my date..." She gave Elena a questionable look, before strolling away in search of Klaus.

Elena didn't break Damon's stare as she strided towards him, a tender smile spreading across her face while she blocked any thoughts of Stefan from her mind. This moment was for her.

"I have to say, whoever picked out that dress has an exquisite taste," Damon smirked when Elena reached him. He lifted her hand and brought it gently to his lips, staring longingly at her.

She returned the smile and rolled her eyes, "he's also quite the joker," she told him sarcastically, referring back to the note. Damon remembered all the times they had danced together before. The founder's ball when Damon had stepped in for his brother, all the words he left unsaid as they danced together. The Halloween party, how much they laughed as Elena let go for a while. The dance floor was a place they both knew very well.

"Shall we?" Damon offered his arm, smouldering his hypnotic eyes at her. Elena took another deep breath and nodded her head slightly, linking her arm in his as they walked together.

"The dress is beautiful Damon, you really didn't have to do that..." She tried to tell him, her own way of saying thank you.

"Don't mention it," he replied. They finally reached the luxurious ball room, filled with magnificent dresses and costly suits, each holding an expensive glass of champagne, chatting among themselves. Elena searched the room, she saw Caroline and Klaus, Jeremy and Bonnie, Matt and Tyler, all laughing and smiling, enjoying themselves. Elena couldn't help but feel like something was missing, she almost felt guilty for nearly feeling completely happy without Stefan.

Damon felt her tense in his arm and paused. He turned to face her worry stricken face, putting his strong hands on each of her soft cheeks, knowing exactly what she was thinking.

"I don't think I can do this, Damon," she told him honestly, all of the negative feelings she'd had over the last week had just come flooding back all at once.

Damon stroked her delicate cheek for comfort, before he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her gently in the opposite direction, "come with me."

Elena had no idea where he was taking her, but she didn't have the nerve to question him, she just wanted to get away from that room. Suddenly, Damon came to an abrupt stop as he slowly turned the knob of a majestic door. He gestured towards Elena for her to enter first and she did, walking into what seemed to be some kind of private library. The walls were made of bookshelves that reached the ceiling, the room was darkly lit by a graceful chandelier and a grand fireplace burning in the centre of the far wall.

Damon wandered over to an old record player and pulled out a vinyl from a drawer underneath and it began to play. "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls filled the quiet room while he meandered back over to Elena, who was still admiring the elegant scenery. He tenderly placed his hand upon her waist, and entwined his fingers in hers with the other gently. Her gaze drifted back to him as he continued to smile down at her, and she quickly became calm once more.

_And I'd give up forever to touch you_

_'Cause I know that you feel me somehow_

_You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be_

_And I don't want to go home right now_

They danced together in complete silence throughout the entire first verse, before Elena broke the intense muteness.

"Thank you," she simply told him, staring admirably at his sculptured features. Elena could feel that this time was different to all the other times they had danced together, there was a magnetism, an invisible force driving them together.

_And all I can taste is this moment_

_And all I can breathe is your life_

_When sooner or later it's over_

_I just don't want to miss you tonight_

"Just doing my job," he honestly replied as they continued to move to the music. He could feel her warm breath against his neck, sending shivers down his spine. "I'm sorry for everything I've done to you hurt you Elena," he knew he didn't deserve her forgiveness after all the hurt he had caused her before, and he promised he would spend the rest of his eternity repaying her. Elena secretly rolled her eyes against his chest and lifted her head to look back at him.

"I'v already forgiven you," she reminded him. Damon smiled momentarily as he remembered the scene on his bed as he lay dying.

Once again, they found their eyes gazing at each other once more, eyes that they had stared into a thousand times before but this time, everything felt different. Right.

_And I don't want the world to see me_

_'Cause I don't think that they'd understand_

_When everything's made to be broken_

_I just want you to know who I am_

Damon had so much he could say to her, so much he wanted to say, he wondered if he would ever have the chance to start. "I'm sorry about Stef-" the chorus of the song boomed through the speakers as Elena crushed her lips against his desperately, as if she had waited her entire life to share this moment with him. Damon's hands moved slowly up to her face, their lips entwining, merging into each other in perfect synchronization. A thousand fires ignited inside the pit of Damon's stomach simultaneously as Elena buried all of her emotions, focusing all of her energy on this one kiss. She raised her arms and placed them firmly on top of his own, pulling him closer to her as they gently moved in the moment.

Damon reluctantly pulled his lips from her grasp to admire her over again, her brown eyes were filled with passion and longing between his unyielding hands.


End file.
